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Examples Of Poverty In The Great Gatsby

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The use of wealth and poverty is used all throughout the novel. The poverty is mainly shown through the valley of ashes. The valley of ashes can be seen today in many cities. Fitzgerald gives the reader more and more information about what happens when an area decays. In this passage in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses various literary elements to demonstrate the side effects that come with decay of an area. To begin, Fitzgerald uses imagery to demonstrate the economic decay of the valley. This passage introduces the valley of ashes. This passage is describing the valley as Nick and Tom pass by in a train. “Ashes take forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling …show more content…

The eyes of T.J. Eckleburg are used several times throughout the book. This is the first time that the reader is introduced to them. “But above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a mom, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg… They look out of no face but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose”(27). The eyes in this passage are used to symbolize the upper class. The eyes like the upper class, look out over the valley, but do nothing to improve its situation. The people that live outside the valley of ashes have no interest in helping the people that are struggling to live inside the valley of ashes. Later on in the passage Nick goes on a train and describes what it's like, “The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passengers on the waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as an hour”(28). The train is almost like a window peering into the valley of ashes. Many people using the train stare out at the valley and know the kind of condition that it is in, but they don't do anything about it. Many outsiders that ride the train have the ability to help the valley of ashes but they choose not to. Consequently, Fitzgerald uses symbolism to represent the lack of desire of outsiders to help the impoverished valley of

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